Rival Schools (series)

Rival Schools, known as Justice Gakuen (Justice Academy) in Japan, is a series of 3D fighting games developed by Capcom. The games, evocative of school setting martial arts shounen manga and anime, focus on students and teachers from various high schools fighting in a great battle to unravel mysterious kidnappings and assaults around their campuses and bring the perpetrators responsible to justice. Rival Schools is Capcom's second original 3D fighting game series after Star Gladiator and it is set in the same universe as the Street Fighter series.[1]

Rival Schools is set in the Japanese city of Aoharu City, and is centered on the student youth that attend schools throughout the area.

Taiyou High School - Their school motto is "A liberated school tradition yields carefree students". Taiyou High School is a small scaled campus, divided into a middle school and high school. 720 students are enrolled in its attendance. With an emphasis on their school maxim, the school's goal is to provide a free spirited and less stifling atmosphere for its students; in example, though school uniforms are assigned, the dress code is lax on uniforms and is of little consequence. Youth individuality is praised and is held in high esteem to where acceptance exams also take credit of an interviewee's extracurricular activities and to where the exam also measures one's independent and individual characteristics. Due to their dynamics and method of teaching, they boast one of the highest college enrollment percentages in the nation, especially for those who have long enrolled in Taiyou since middle school grades.

Gorin High School - Their school motto is "a healthy mind, a strong body, and Olympian training". Gorin High is a school devoted to developing the athletic elite, hosting an integrated 6 grade middle school curriculum and high school curriculum, with 900 middle schoolers and 1800 high schoolers enrolled in its attendance. With an emphasis on better refining athletic ability and character, it is rather these traits that hold a higher place next to academic prowess, that Gorin searches for; its near double high school student body can be thanked by its scouts scattered about the nation that scour for youth with exceptional levels of athletic talent.

Gorin University - Along with primary education, Gorin boasts a university campus in response to their high graduate turnout having overwhelmed other athletics centered colleges in Japan. While retaining the same spirit of training the best of athletes into secondary education, Gorin University also emphasizes the importance of sports medicine and coaching, coming full circle to help instill their alumni with the same school spirit for future generations and the next new generation of athletes.

Pacific High School - Their school motto is "circulate elite education through the world using culture and sports". Established near a US Military base and American citizens quarter by the harbors of Aoharu, Pacific High's crowning attributes are its high overseas US student body and emphasis on international cultural exchange and understanding. Plenty of its students descend from personnel and celebrities of high profiles, adding to its prestige. 500 students attend its campus.

Gedo High School - Their school motto is "use lessons that drill the mind to raise people who don't drift from the way of the people", although its student body argues otherwise that "by gang morals and perseverance, one person will force a lot of graduations". An all males school that once focused on a new age traditional Japanese education for its time, its curriculum centered on both knowledge and martial arts to raise fine and well behaved men, Gedo has devolved to become a correctional institution for the worst of the worst in Japan. Located on a river mouth and in Aoharu's industrial area, its student body and the future of enrolling new alumni dwindles as the economy finds the industrial area in decline with each passing day. Around 320 freshmen, 160 juniors, and 80 seniors are in attendance, and are all kept in line by Daigo Kazama, the current day bancho of Gedo.

Seijun Jogakuin High School - Their school motto is "to raise women who display feminine virtues and the time-honored traditions of Japan within themselves". Under financial aid with a certain zaibatsu, Seiji Jogakuin High is an all females academy on the outskirts of Aoharu, built on a small island offshore a local scenic lake, and with a few exceptions, all students live on campus in dormitories. However, existent in a time where the freedom of students in their schooling is prized, one of Seiji Jogakuin's criticisms are its policies and regulations are behind the times, with one example being student downtime on summer vacation, winter vacation, and New Years allowed for student leave, and any other instance requiring permission from the principal. All students come from well to do and well off families, but what is also well kept as a secret is the underground all female gang of the school; allowing them to exploit their stay on campus but preserving the school's image is the loophole, that, as troublemakers and those students who break the rules don't come to school, and as objection to the rules is stirring trouble, subterfuge of student activity is engaged to allow one to get what they want and gets others to look away without suspicion, which is managed by the sukeban leader Zaki.

Justice High School - Their school motto is "A sound mind and body build excellent abilities". A private academy built to nurture the elite that should change Japan, it is a rigid but orderly school, focused on the standard few year system but geared to change the content of one's personal abilities for the purpose of personal growth; such teaching methods include a ranking system that corresponds accordingly to one's standing for lessons and classes, that goes from J (minimum level) to A (highest level). Students who attend live on campus in dorms, are issued study schedules that are determined by the school, and are not allowed to leave for home until graduation. Its principal is Raizo Imawano, who based the school's guidelines and system on that of the Imawano ninja clan education when he grew up.

Tamagawa Minami High School - Not very much is known about this school, other than it made a cameo appearance as a stage in Street Fighter EX, and that Sakura attends its campus.

A comic book mini-series based on Rival Schools was produced by Udon Studios, with its first issue published on May 17, 2006, with art by Corey Lewis. Originally, the comic was to be produced by Dreamwave Productions, but when Dreamwave showed signs of financial failure, the rights of the comic were sold to Udon, who already produced the successful Street Fighter comics. The comic was not as successful as the Street Fighter series. The comic made available on August 31, 2007 in the U.S. and later released as a web comic.

Rival Schools began development when Hideaki Itsuno wanted to make a 60fps polygon-based fighting game.[2] As the earlier 3D fighting game Star Gladiator was already set to 30fps, because of things such as sword effects and backgrounds, the development team didn't exceed the limitations of the arcade hardware.[2]

The game was originally called Justice Fist, and the intial story was that
fighters from every country came together to decide who was the strongest.[2] Itsuno wrote up the design document for the idea and showed it to several co-workers but after a humble respone, he decided to base it on something people had an interest in and understood, and went with a school setting because he believed that everyone has had school experiences.[2]